Two ‘Godzilla’ TV Spots Tease the Humans Up Against the Monsters

Among the sequel-heavy blockbuster releases of 2014, there is one remake which looks better and better the more we see of it: Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. The modern update of the 1954 Japanese classic Gojira has a director in Monsters helmer Edwards, whose vision appears solidly fan-approved – with a monster design and take on the mythos far removed from Roland Emmerich’s still-derided 1998 version.

After deliberately hiding the monster from the public for much of 2013, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have spent this year giving us a whole lotof clear looks at the titular beast’s new design, with a series of powerful trailers and TV spots framing the scale of not just the international conflict but King of the Monsters itself as suitably epic and serious.

We now have two new TV spots. The first, which you can watch above, focuses mainly on the characters played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2) and Elizabeth Olsen (Oldboy), a married couple separated when Taylor-Johnson’s soldier Ford Brody is called back into action, pulling him from his wife Elle.

The second TV trailer, featured right above, spreads the focus back out to the rest of the cast, which includes Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Ken Watanabe (Inception), and David Strathairn (Lincoln).

Except for a couple of good looks at the monster, these spots have nothing new to show us. The first spot’s focus on Olsen and Taylor-Johnson’s young married couple – a relationship which may end up reflecting that of Cranston’s character and Juliette Binoche (who play the younger characters’ parents) – points toward the overall grimness of this new Godzilla.

The inclusion of several additional monsters to rival the terror Godzilla and further ravage civilization is one of the most exciting aspects of this reboot, but these spots once again drive home the almost overwhelming grimness on hand. The sheer, eye-popping size of Godzilla remains a stunner, but we’ve had summer blockbuster seasons full of large-scale, apocalyptic disaster imagery for several years in a row – audiences will need to connect with the human drama amidst the chaos.

Taylor-Johnson, Olsen and Cranston are likable leads, but will their stories be lost in the monsters’ stomp and roar? We here at Screen Rant remain hopeful that won’t be the case.